Review | Poised performance from Borodin Quartet in works by Shostakovich, Borodin and Beethoven
Russian ensemble celebrate 80 years of music making in Hong Kong with polished performance of quartets by Beethoven, Borodin, Shostakovich
The Borodin Quartet are no strangers to Hong Kong. Previous appearances include concerts in 2005 and 2015 to mark the ensemble’s 60th and 70th birthdays.
The Russian string quartet were back this month for their 80th anniversary celebration, this time at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, their earlier concerts having been held at the smaller Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall.
The first of their two concerts in Hong Kong opened with the second string quartet by Borodin, after whom the ensemble are named, and the first quartet by Shostakovich – two works that play to their strengths.
The Borodin quartet, with its hypnotic “Nocturne” movement, is their signature piece, and they have a close association with Shostakovich, who mentored the ensemble’s first generation of players.
There was a Russian element to the second half of the concert too, in which they played the first of Beethoven’s three “Razumovsky” quartets, so named because they were dedicated to Count Andrey Razumovsky, an early 19th-century Russian ambassador in Vienna.
Overall, the Borodin Quartet’s performance was well-mannered, poised, unpretentious and musically thoroughly rewarding. One could feel the Russian flavour to their music-making in their tonal colours and articulation. Their pizzicato playing, in particular, was bold and unrestrained.